The Zapata Times 12/20/2017

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MEXICO

HARVEY RELIEF

12 dead in tour bus crash

How money spent remains unclear

Cruise ship passengers on way to see Mayan ruins

By Christopher Sherman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

MEXICO CITY — At least 12 people died when a bus carrying cruise ship passengers to Mayan ruins in eastern Mexico flipped over on a highway early Tuesday, officials said.

Seven Americans and two Swedes were among the injured, Quintana Roo state Civil Defense spokesman Vicente Martin said. He said authorities hadn’t yet established the nationalities of the dead.

Video images from the scene

showed the bus on its side in vegetation off the two-lane highway, with some survivors lying on the pavement and others walking around.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said in a statement that passengers from two of its ships, the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were involved in the crash. The company expressed its sympathies and said it was assisting with medical care and transportation.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico Crash continues on A8

Manuel Jesus Ortega Canche / AFP/Getty Images

Officers and paramedics work in the scene of an accident, where a bus driving tourists to see the Mayan ruins overturned in Quintana Roo state, Mexico on Tuesday.

CONGRESS DELAYS DACA FIX

Courtesy photo

Immigrant youth marched to U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar's office in Washington, D.C. on Friday, demanding he commits to the DREAM Act this year.

Young immigrants’ fate unclear in race to avoid deportation A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

Laura Lopez is a Mexican immigrant living in Florida who has been racing against time to avoid deportation.

Lopez said she arrived at the post office just after the cutoff time and missed the deadline set by President Donald Trump to renew her paperwork for the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program that helps young immigrants brought into the country illegally.

Lopez, 30, blamed the chaos of Hurricane Irma while juggling a move from Miami to Daytona Beach as reasons why she missed the cutoff.

As a result, her status as a recipient of DACA ends Friday.

Her driver’s license, car insurance and housing lease are all in jeopardy once the program goes

away for her.

“Everywhere I go, everything and everyone reminds me I have an expiration date” said Lopez, who is still trying to show proof that she attempted to send her renewal package the day before the Oct. 5 deadline. “The government is playing with the lives of families.”

Lopez is one of thousands of immigrants who are losing their protection from deportation under the program established

by President Barack Obama in 2012, including many who missed the deadline or saw their applications lost in the mail.

The immigrants also are being provided a glimpse of what will happen if Congress is unable to come up with a permanent replacement. Thousands more will start seeing their protections end in March.

Here are some questions and

By Emily Schmall ASSOCIATED PRE SS

U.S. IMMIGRATION

By Adriana Gomez Licon

Lack of transparency clouds distribution

answers about the process: WHY THE RUSH? In theory, DACA recipients should be protected until March.

Under the program, immigrants get two-year permits that let them work and remain in the country. Trump rescinded the program earlier this year, but he let immigrants renew their papers if they were set to expire between September and March.

Immigrants had to reapply by Oct. 5 and pay a $495 fee.

The government says 132,000 of the 154,000 eligible DACA renewals applied in time, leaving more than 20,000 without any protection from deportation.

There have been other problems.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said

900 requests were mistakenly rejected for being late, despite having arrived at the filing sites on time. Those applicants were told to reapply by Dec. 2.

The agency said it is still working to determine how many requests were affected by U.S. Postal Service delays, following reports of immigrants who shipped their documents well in advance and were delivered late. These applicants are now waiting for instructions on how to resubmit their renewal requests.

CAN THESE IMMIGRANTS BE DEPORTED? Advocacy groups are highlighting the detention in Pennsylvania last week of a Guatemalan immigrant whose DACA renewal was reportedly among the ones delayed by the postal DACA continues on A8

FORT WORTH — Texas has been awarded billions in federal aid to help recover from Hurricane Harvey and the devastating flooding that followed, but it’s unclear how the state is spending its share of the money.

State records don’t indicate which contracts are stormrelated, making fund tracking — and spending accountability — nearly impossible.

Disaster recovery experts say the lack of transparency in Texas could hinder coordination, encourage fraud and squander an opportunity not only to rebuild after one of the country’s costliest natural disasters, but also to mitigate the risks of the next monster storm.

Here’s a look at where some of the money has gone and what’s not being tracked: FEDERAL ASSISTANCE Texas has received more than $11 billion in federal disaster aid since Hurricane Harvey hit the state’s Gulf Coast in late August. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has appealed for $61 billion more in federal assistance, largely for public infrastructure projects.

The bulk of the federal money spent so far has gone through federal agencies, which — unlike Texas agencies — maintain public, frequently updated databases of their spending. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also provides daily updates.

Those records show that as of Dec. 12, FEMA paid $1.47 billion for hotel bills and emergency home repairs; the Small Business Administration issued $2.84 billion in low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses; and the National Flood Insurance Program paid $6.87 billion in flood insurance.

The federal government also maintained a centralized database to search for contracts awarded during the storm.

HOW TEXAS SPENDS FEDERAL AID It’s much harder to track federal money being distributed through the state.

So far, more than $500 million in federal dollars have gone directly to Texas to reimburse state agencies and local jurisdictions for debris removal, power restoration and emergency infrastructure repairs.

But how the money has been spent is unclear.

Abbott, who divided funding coordination among several state agencies, appointed a commission to help hard-hit cities, towns and counties get Harvey continues on A5

Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE NATION

TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20

A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S

First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

SUNDAY, DEC. 31 New Year’s Eve celebration. 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Downtown Laredo at the Outlet Shoppes at Laredo parking lot.

SATURDAY, JAN. 6 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

SATURDAY, FEB. 3 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., joined at right by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, meets reporters after passing the Republican tax reform bill.

GOP ON THE VERGE OF TAX OVERHAUL WASHINGTON — Jubilant Republicans pushed on Tuesday to the verge of the most sweeping rewrite of the nation’s tax laws in more than three decades, a deeply unpopular bill they insist Americans will learn to love when they see their paychecks in the new year. President Donald Trump cheered the lawmakers on, eager to claim his first major legislative accomplishment.

Perhaps emblematic of the stumbles along the way, there was one last hiccup.

Speaker Paul Ryan, who has worked years toward the goal of revamping the tax code,

gleefully pounded the gavel on the final House vote, but then it turned out it wasn’t final after all.

The Senate was expected to pass the legislation Tuesday night and send it on to Trump for his signature. But the Democrats noted that three provisions violated Senate rules. So the massive bill will be hauled back across the Capitol for the House to re-vote on Wednesday.

GOP House members roared and applauded as their chamber passed the $1.5 trillion package largely along party lines, 227-203. — Compiled from AP reports

SATURDAY, MARCH 3 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

Man gets 28 years in prison for plot to behead blogger BOSTON — A man convicted of leading an Islamic Stateinspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced on Tuesday to 28 years in prison.

David Wright sobbed as he apologized to blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement and his family and denounced the ter-

SATURDAY, MAY 5

AROUND TEXAS

First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

Man who fought gay marriage ban running for Senate

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

SATURDAY, JULY 7 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

AUSTIN — A man who sued over the right to marry his partner said Tuesday that he is running as a Democrat in 2018 in a bid that would make him the first openly gay state senator in Texas if elected.

Mark Phariss, a lawyer from the Dallas suburb of Plano, said he is encouraged by recent high-profile Democratic upsets in Virginia and Alabama as he launches his first run for public office in Dallas’ conservative northern suburbs.

Phariss and his partner, Vic Holmes, were the lead plaintiffs in a 2013 lawsuit over a Texas ban on gay marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide two years later.

His candidacy sets up a possible race next year against Angela Paxton, the wife of

ror group, whose horrific acts he used to celebrate online.

“Nothing I can say can fix the hurt I caused,” the 28-yearold Wright said. “I sincerely hope that I can be given the opportunity to help others avoid the mistakes I made.”

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Wright, arguing it would send a strong message to others considering terror attacks in the U.S. But Judge William G. Young said he was uncomfortable with sending Wright away for life, telling him: “You are not a monster,

yet you embraced a monstrous evil.”

Prosecutors portrayed Wright, who’s from Everett, just north of Boston, as the ringleader of the conspiracy to kill Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamic extremism. The cartoon contest Geller organized in Garland, Texas, in 2015 ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police.

The plot to behead Geller was never carried out. — Compiled from AP reports

Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News

Mark Phariss, left, and Vic Holmes watch as friends fill the room for group photos before their wedding in Frisco in 2015.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both Phariss and Angela Paxton, a school guidance counselor, face primary challengers.

“We’re spending too much time on issues that do not affect the daily lives of Texans like education does,” Phariss said of the Republican-controlled Legislature and Texas

GOP leaders.

Winning will require flipping a Senate district that has been reliably Republican: The outgoing senator, Republican Van Taylor, won with nearly 80 percent of the vote in 2014.

Ken Paxton also held the seat before becoming attorney general in 2015. — Compiled from AP reports

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 20, the 354th day of 2017. There are 11 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History: On Dec. 20, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.

On this date: In 1790, the first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston voted in favor of separation.

In 1864, Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Georgia, as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman nearly completed his "March to the Sea." In 1924, Adolf Hitler was released from prison after serving nine months for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.

In 1945, the Office of Price Administration announced the end of tire rationing, effective Jan. 1, 1946.

In 1946, the Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life," starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, had a preview showing for charity in New York, a day before its official world premiere.

In 1963, the Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.

In 1976, Richard J. Daley, the mayor of Chicago since 1955, died in office at age 74.

In 1987, more than 4,300 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island.

In 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

In 1995, an American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, slammed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over from the United Nations.

Ten years ago: Police used chemical spray and stun guns on protesters outside a New Orleans City Council meeting where members unanimously supported demolition of 4,500 public housing units for postHurricane Katrina redevelopment.

Thieves broke into the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil and made off with two paintings, one by Pablo Picasso and the other by Candido Portinari. Utah opened the bowl season with a wild 35-32 victory over the Navy Midshipmen in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Five years ago: The State Department acknowledged major weaknesses in security and errors in judgment exposed in a scathing independent report on the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya. The National Hockey League, in a labor fight with its players, announced the cancellation of the 2012-13 regular-season schedule through Jan. 14, 2013. Michael Phelps was named The Associated Press male athlete of the year. Three-time Olympic runner Suzy Favor Hamilton acknowledged working as an escort following a report on The Smoking Gun website about her double life.

One year ago: President Barack Obama designated the bulk of U.S.owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing. A deadly chain-reaction explosion ripped through Mexico's best-known fireworks market on the northern outskirts of the capital, killing at least 36 people. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was injured in her playing hand by a knife-wielding attacker at her Czech Republic home and underwent surgery (the attacker remains at large).

Today's Birthdays: Original Mouseketeer Tommy Cole is 76. Rhythm and blues singer-musician Walter "Wolfman" Washington is 74. Rock musician-music producer Bobby Colomby is 73. Rock musician Peter Criss is 72. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is 71. Psychic/illusionist Uri Geller is 71. Producer Dick Wolf is 71. Rock musician Alan Parsons is 69. Actress Jenny Agutter is 65. Actor Michael Badalucco is 63. Actress Blanche Baker is 61. Rock singer Billy Bragg is 60. Rock singer-musician Mike Watt is 60. Actor Joel Gretsch is 54. Country singer Kris Tyler is 53. Rock singer Chris Robinson is 51. Actress Nicole deBoer is 47. Movie director Todd Phillips is 47. Singer David Cook is 35.

Actor Jonah Hill is 34. Actor Bob Morley is 33. Singer JoJo is 27.

Thought for Today : "It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." — Marlene Dietrich, Germanborn actress (1901-1992).

SATURDAY, AUG. 4 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.

AROUND THE WORLD

8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.

Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.

Saudis intercept Yemen rebel missile targeting palace

Submit calendar items by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location, purpose and contact information for a representative. Items will run as space is available.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels said it intercepted a missile fired over southern Riyadh on Tuesday, which the rebels said was targeting a “top leadership” meeting at the royal palace in the kingdom’s capital.

It was the second time in as many months that a rebel pro-

jectile had reached as far inside the kingdom as Riyadh.

The Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis, said they launched a ballistic missile to target Yamama Palace in Riyadh, where King Salman chairs weekly government meetings and receives dignitaries and heads of state from around the world.

The statement from the U.S.backed coalition said the missile was fired by the Houthis.

State TV said no damage was caused by the intercepted missile. The coalition later said the

CONTACT US missile launch proved the “continued involvement” of Iran in supporting the Houthis.” It also repeated its claim that the rebels use “relief work outlets” to smuggle such missiles inside Yemen to target the kingdom.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that “this attack is a flashing red siren for the Security Council. While not all evidence is in, “it bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons.” — Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 |

A3

STATE

Judge claims man’s innocence in sex assault case A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

GEORGETOWN, Texas — A Texas judge is recommending that the conviction of a man sent to prison on child sexual assault charges be overturned and that he meets the state’s legal threshold to be declared innocent.

State District Judge Donna King made the recommendation Monday in the case of Greg Kelley, who spent the last three years in prison after being accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old boy at an inhome day care center in 2013. Kelley was released on bond in August after King cited mistakes police made during the investigation.

The recommendation comes as Kelley’s attorney and Williamson County prosecutors work together to overturn the original conviction. Both have said Kelley had ineffective coun-

King wrote in her ruling that she “finds the culmination of evidence supports the applicant’s claim of actual innocence. sel during the 2014 trial, and said that police botched the investigation. King agreed in her ruling, saying that police didn’t interview other adults in the house, didn’t interview the parents of the children at the day care or even obtain a list of the children who attended it.

Cedar Park City Manager Brenda Eivens said the city is “taking a hard look at the criminal investigations processes and procedures and is willing to make difficult decisions as necessary.”

King also said Kelley’s trial defense attorney, Patricia Cummings, had a conflict of

interest because she had represented members of the family at the house in criminal cases.

King wrote in her ruling that she “finds the culmination of evidence supports the applicant’s claim of actual innocence. He (Kelley) has met his burden and established he is actually innocent of this offense for which he was convicted.”

Texas law states that a defendant meets the standard for “actual innocence” if a judge believes no reasonable juror would convict him.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will make the final decision about whether to uphold Kelley’s conviction.

Man arrested in rash of ATM thefts A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

HOUSTON — Houston police have arrested one of the individuals investigators believe is part of a group of men responsible for the theft of ATMs from the lobbies of five hotels this month.

Police announced Tuesday that 20-year-old

Keltrin Stephens has been charged with felony theft of property.

Investigators say in all five heists — the last three at Marriott hotels — the cash machines were not secured to a floor or wall and the gang of masked men simply carried them to a waiting vehicle.

No one was hurt in

any of the robberies.

Stephens was arrested on Monday without incident. He has previously been charged with various counts of robbery and burglary.

Court records didn’t list an attorney for Stephens.

Police say they continue searching for additional suspects.

$200K settlement approved in inmate’s death ASSOCIATED PRE SS

TEXARKANA, Ark. — A judge has approved a $200,000 settlement in the case of a severely diabetic woman who died in a Texarkana jail last year.

Miller County Circuit Judge Carlton Jones granted approval Monday for Little Rock lawyer Matthew Campbell to settle the case against LaSalle Corrections in the July 2016 death of Morgan Angerbauer. LaSalle Corrections manages the Bi-State Justice Building jail in Texarkana, the Texarkana Gazette reported .

Court records said

Angerbauer, 20, died of ketoacidosis after former nurse Brittany Johnson refused to treat her. Ketoacidosis is a condition resulting from severely high blood sugar.

Johnson pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor negligent homicide and is serving three months in the Miller County jail.

Jones approved the settlement despite objections from David Carter, the attorney for Jennifer Houser, Angerbauer’s mother. Houser was initially appointed administrator of her daughter’s estate, but Campbell filed a motion in May replacing her with Little Rock law-

yer Victoria Leigh. The motion said Houser expressed wanting to “no longer be involved in any action on behalf of the estate of Morgan Angerbauer.”

Houser said she didn’t know she was replaced as administrator until she was asked about it by a third party in June. She said she only learned about the settlement when contacted by news media and was unaware that being replaced as administrator meant she had no input in the matter.

Leigh said the settlement is in the best interest of the estate.

Five family members killed in wreck ASSOCIATED PRE SS

SINTON, Texas — Authorities say five members of a family have died when their SUV went off a South Texas overpass and plunged to the roadway below.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Nathan Brandley says the driver of a Chevy Suburban may have fallen asleep early Tuesday while traveling from Georgia to Mexico.

He says nine people were in the SUV

and DPS was notified of the wreck about 3:30 a.m.

The Suburban, which was towing a trailer, caught fire when it fell from the overpass north of Sinton. Five of the occupants died at the scene.

The four others were taken to a hospital in Portland, just northeast of Corpus Christi, with what Brandley described as non life-threatening injuries.

No other details were immediately available as the investigation continues.

Amber Alert issued for infant after mom’s stabbing ASSOCIATED PRE SS

HOUSTON — Authorities have issued an Amber Alert for an infant girl in Houston who was reported missing after her mother was found fatally stabbed.

Houston police began searching for Shanally

Flores after officers found her mother’s body in her north Houston apartment around noon on Tuesday.

Police believe the infant girl is with her father, Thomas Bernardez, who is considered by investigators as a possible suspect in the death

of Shanally’s mother.

Bernardez, from Honduras, is believed to be driving a 2000 Blue Toyota Celica with a black hood and with Texas license plate CM7-L340.

Houston police did not immediately release the name of Shanally’s mother.

Zopinion

Letters to the editor Send your signed letter to editorial@lmtonline.com

A4 | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Kay Graham stood tall for journalism

By Jules Witcover TR IBUNE NEWS SE RV ICE

There’s a new film out about The Washington Post and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the Department of Defense’s classified history of the lead-up to the Vietnam War. Before I saw the film, I was mystified by the title, "The Post," because the Pentagon Papers were first leaked to and printed in The New York Times, which won a Pulitzer Prize for it in 1972.

But after seeing the film, and after reading Post executive editor Martin Baron’s explanation in a later Post interview, the mystery was cleared up for me.

"Well," Baron said, "they didn’t have Katharine Graham, in all honesty.

If they’d had Katharine Graham, it would be we’d be calling it ’The Times.’ " The timing of the film’s release - at the peak of the "#MeToo" movement against male sexual harassment in the workplace — appears more fortuitous than intentional. It is more a declaration of women’s arrival and progress against gender inequality in the news media and elsewhere.

The team at The Post of publisher Graham and editor Ben Bradlee continued well after the historic Pentagon Papers case, which marked the first time the American free press was obliged to go to the Supreme Court to assure the right to publish.

Later, during the Watergate scandal coverage, for which The Post won a Pulitzer, Bradlee regularly kept his boss in touch with the progress of the sleuthing he oversaw by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, on which the reputation of the newspaper also was critically at stake.

Graham herself infamously became a memorable footnote in the Watergate saga when Bernstein phoned Nixon presidential campaign manager John Mitchell and told him the next morning’s story would report of the plan to buy off the burglars, to which Mitchell angrily replied: "All that crap, you’re putting in the paper? .

Katie Graham’s gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published." She later oneupped him by including the quote in her Pulitzerwinning memoir.

The Stephen Spielberg movie in essence is not so much about the Pentagon Papers revealing the deceptions and mistakes of officialdom as it is about the gutsy decisive-

ness of the woman who unexpectedly inherited The Post, and made the call to publish the papers.

When her husband, Philip Graham, the paper’s previous publisher, committed suicide in 1963, Katharine, as daughter of the previous Post owner, took over amid deep doubts about doing so. From the start, she leaned heavily on the male board members, including executive editor Bradlee, the tough but fun-loving and charismatic leader she had brought over from the Post-owned Newsweek.

In her memoir she wrote that although "I was still the newcomer" in Post top management, "Ben and I, however, were partners, very much together in focusing on our common goals." A scene in "The Post," in which the Bradlee character waits silently and deferentially as she gives the final word to publish, says it all.

Kay Graham, portrayed with verve by look-alike Meryl Streep, is seen as uncertain at first but steadily growing into and accepting her heavy responsibilities to the family enterprise and to real-world journalism.

Bradlee, for all his brusque and dominant manner, is presented by Tom Hanks as Katharine’s confidence-building right arm and respectful friend, who in every scene makes clear it’s her call on whether or not to publish, despite the strong disinclinations of other Post board members. Notably, Kay and Ben go together and stand side-by-side at the Supreme Court hearing, awaiting its critical decision enabling her to order the Post’s printing presses to start rolling.

In her memoir, she wrote that after the Pentagon Papers case: "I gained even more confidence in Ben. He and I had a true understanding between us, as well as a respect and admiration for each other, but until the Pentagon Papers we had never been tested publicly in any way."

In a sense, the scenes that demonstrated her transition from early insecurity in the presence of the elder, seasoned but more cautionary advisers of her late husband, to the Kay Graham confidently emerging as true partner of her executive editor, shows why film’s short title, "The Post," might justly be better called, simply, "Katharine."

Jules Witcover is a columnist for Tribune Content Agency.

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COLUMN

Four good things in an otherwise shoddy tax bill

By Justin Fox BL OOMBERG

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was a landmark piece of bipartisan legislation, preceded by years of groundwork by Treasury Department experts and carefully crafted to permanently lower tax rates while not putting a significant dent in tax revenue. Yet a year after its passage, Congress was already tweaking the tax code. In 1990 lawmakers did away with one of the tax reform law’s signature accomplishments, the top income tax rate of 28 percent (it was raised to 31 percent). They have been assiduously adding complications to the tax code ever since.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has been billed as the biggest rewrite of the tax code since 1986. But if it is enacted this week as expected, it will be entirely along party lines. The legislation is projected to put a major dent in tax revenue — a dent that would be even bigger if so many of its provisions weren’t set to expire in a few years. And it was assembled in rushed, at times haphazard, fashion. As a group of prominent tax scholars argued in an assessment released Monday: “The legislation is ... likely to cost more than the current estimates of over $1 trillion, to advantage the well-advised (and their advisors) in ways that are both deliberate and inadvertent, and to face legal roadblocks like WTO noncompliance that could undermine key components of the legislation.

Finally, the bill includes glitches that could lead to haphazard and unexpected results that could arbitrarily favor or penalize taxpayers.”

So it’s a good bet that Congress will be revisiting the tax code soon!

At least, one would hope so.

Still, there are provisions of the tax bill that emerged from conference committee on Friday that strike me as keepers: positive, important changes that, even if imperfectly executed this

time around (and in some cases due to expire in 2026), would be good to keep around in some form.

A lower corporate tax rate: While lowering corporate taxes is extremely unpopular with voters, tax experts in both parties agree that the current 35 percent rate is counterproductively high.

Add in average state and local taxes, and the U.S. has the highest statutory corporate rate in the developed world, which gives corporations a big incentive to structure their operations in ways that avoid U.S. taxes.

President Barack Obama proposed cutting the top corporate rate to 28 percent in 2012, along with shrinking corporate deductions and loopholes to make up for the revenue loss. The current tax bill shrinks some deductions and loopholes, too, but not nearly enough to make up for the likely revenue loss from cutting the rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. So 21 percent shouldn’t be sacred, and Congress could surely do more on the deductionand-loophole front. But going back to 35 percent would be a bad idea.

Restrictions on business interest deductions: Corporations can deduct interest payments from their taxes but not dividends. This means that corporations financed largely with debt effectively don’t pay corporate income taxes. This is bad for the economy because, as former mutual fund industry executive and Brookings Institution senior fellow Robert Pozen explained a few years ago: “To begin with, this bias strongly encourages financial institutions and other firms to maximize their leverage — their debt relative to their equity. High leverage increases the risk of bankruptcy and magnifies any financial crisis because a business under pressure has little equity cushion to absorb losses.

“The tax bias against equity makes it much more expensive for small

businesses and knowledge-based companies to raise capital. Because they do not have the hard assets sought by banks to collateralize loans, such companies are forced to sell large chunks of their equity.”

The new tax bill restricts the deduction for business interest to 30 percent of income. There are some complications regarding how that interest is defined, some dodgy workarounds for pass-through businesses, and an exemption for real estate debt. But on the whole, Pozen told me in an email, “the bill’s limits on deductibility of interest are a substantial step in the right direction.”

The higher standard exemption: We probably won’t all be filing our taxes on a postcard, as House Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., promised. Doubling the standard exemption, though, means that fewer American taxpayers will find it worth their while to itemize deductions (the percentage of taxpayers doing so is expected to drop to 6 percent from 30 percent). Over time, this should not only make it easier and less timeconsuming for most people to fill out their tax forms, but also encourage them to pay less attention to the tax code in their day-to-day economic decision-making. Now, the fact that the current legislation also gives many high-income taxpayers (those with income from pass-through businesses, mainly) incentive to pay more attention to the tax code in their day-to-day economic decision-making may cancel out much of the positive effect here. But that doesn’t make raising the standard exemption a bad idea.

The smaller mortgage deduction: The current $1 million limit on the mortgage amount for which interest can be deducted dates to those 1987 tax tweaks I mentioned above. At the time it affected only a few veryhigh-end home buyers.

Now the median single-

family home in the San Jose, California, metropolitan area — the nation’s most expensive — costs $1.2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors, and million-dollar-plus houses and condos are common in lots of other metro areas, especially along the coasts. The new tax bill would reduce the deductibility limit to $750,000 for new mortgages, and do entirely away with the deductibility of interest on home equity loans. This is understandably controversial, but it’s also almost certainly good economic policy. There’s just no good reason to give tax subsidies to uppermiddle-class homebuyers, and several good reasons not to: The deduction encourages people to take on more debt than they otherwise would, drives up housing prices, and favors buyers over renters. The change will have no effect on current homeowners’ tax bills, and its impact on homebuyers is incremental: If you take out an $800,000 mortgage, the interest on $750,000 of that will be still be taxdeductible. It would put downward pressure on home prices in expensive cities and suburbs, but (1) the effect is likely to be modest and (2) downward pressure on home prices in very expensive places isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

These mortgage and home equity changes, along with the increase in the standard exemption, are all due to expire in 2026 along with most of the other individual income tax changes in the legislation. This was done to lessen the negative revenue impact of the bill — even though some of the changes, such as those involving mortgages, would raise revenue. The authors of the current legislation hope that future Congresses will extend these provisions. This is a terrible, cynical way to make tax policy. But future Congresses should extend some of the provisions anyway.

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg View columnist.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 |

A5

FROM THE COVER

Police sergeant fired for ordering officer to use Taser FORT WORTH — A Texas police sergeant has been fired for ordering a rookie officer to use a stun gun on a woman who had called for help during a domestic dispute.

Fort Worth police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said in an emailed statement that he fired Sgt. Kenneth Pierce on Monday, saying the 22-year police veteran became impatient and needlessly initiated the physical confrontation with the woman, who the police department has not named.

Fitzgerald also released a 12-minute video from the body camera of the rook-

HARVEY From page A1 reimbursed by FEMA for public projects. However, the commission isn’t tracking the funds. Instead, local authorities are responsible for transparency and for holding onto receipts in case of a federal audit, said commission spokesman Laylan Copelin.

“We’re on the service end of things, we’re not really in the money trail,” Copelin said.

Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said the state currently had no centralized, comprehensive funds tracker that would allow the public to monitor recovery and rebuilding spending. He said one is in the works, though he didn’t know what it would entail or when it would come online.

STATE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE Another murky side of Texas’ storm spending involves state contracts awarded to private companies for services or products, such as food or portable shower rentals for first responders.

About $1.7 billion in state funds were spent by state agencies on storm recovery and rebuilding through October, according to a report by the Legislative Budget Board.

But how each agency spent the funds is unclear. For example, the board’s report shows that the Department of Health and Human Services spent more than $1 billion, but there’s no breakdown of where or when the money was spent.

There’s also no specific code or marker in a public database of state contracts to indicate which contracts are related to Harvey, according to Jacob Pugh, who oversees the database on behalf of the board, which provides Texas lawmakers with budget recommendations and fiscal analyses.

“There’s no way to say, ‘Just give me Harvey contracts,’ because there’s no identifier for that,”

Fitzgerald said charges against the woman were dropped after the video and other evidence was reviewed. ie officer, Maria Bayona, that he said clearly shows Pierce’s behavior was “absolutely unacceptable.”

“We are built on a foundation of being problem-solvers. Pierce responded in an opposite manner, and he escalated the situation endangering everyone involved including his fellow officers,” Fitzgerald said in

the release.

An attorney for Pierce, Terry Daffron, held a press conference Tuesday afternoon with the Fort Worth Police Officers’ Association, a union representing Fort Worth officers. Daffron and union officials called Pierce’s firing a mistake, saying the call details sent to officers said there was a person with a

said R.J. DeSilva, a board spokesman. “You could do a word search for Harvey or hurricane. But the contract description needs not necessarily have those words in it.”

The database also doesn’t reveal whether any individual contract was paid for with state or federal funds, or a combination of the two, DeSilva said.

The database is maintained by the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

Hirsch, the governor’s spokesman, said the office is working on coding that would distinguish Harvey contracts from other state contracts.

Sandy “czar,” a Cabinetlevel position responsible for coordinating rebuilding strategies and funding.

“If everyone’s kind of doing their own thing, it’s very possible, from a hazard-mitigation standpoint, that things won’t be effectively coordinated. Without a centralized approach, things can even function at cross purposes,” Ferzan said.

Ferzan suggested Texas set up a central database to track where money is coming from and where it’s being applied, similar to what New York and New Jersey created after Sandy caused $65 billion in damage in 2012. Those databases were searchable by funding source, contract award and contractor.

North Carolina also recently launched a website to track the $230 million that Congress allocated in community development block grants after Hurricane Matthew hit the state in 2016.

The U.S. government doesn’t require states to provide a detailed accounting for disaster relief. But that could change under legislation awaiting a vote in the House. The bill, the Disaster Recovery and Reform Act, aims to streamline data on the acquisition and administration of federal funds.

“With the magnitude of this year’s storms, there have been a lot of questions about costs. There’s been a push on Capitol Hill to improve oversight and transparency,” said Chris Currie, director of emergency management and national preparedness issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The nonpartisan watchdog agency monitors how federal taxpayer money is spent.

A lack of such transparency and oversight dogged federal agencies after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. As much as 21 percent of the $6.3 billion given directly to victims of that storm may have been improperly distributed, according accountability office.

STILL AWAITING FEDERAL HOUSING AID About $5 billion in federal funding was pledged to Texas by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address housing shortages and infrastructure repairs. That money hasn’t made its way to Texas, in part because HUD has yet to publish rules for how the money should be used.

When the money does arrive, it will be administered through the Texas General Land Office, which will publicize an accounting of each grant in quarterly reports hosted on its website. But removed from other recovery spending, the reports may have limited public utility.

The HUD money will be for long-term rebuilding efforts, such as replacing a flooded watertreatment plant or building new homes. The funding, through community development block grants, is intended to fill in the gaps after individuals and government agencies exhaust all other sources of funding.

BEST PRACTICES Texas’ silo approach to monitoring and allocating funds could haunt the state’s Republican leadership, said Marc Ferzan, a government compliance consultant who served as New Jersey’s Superstorm

weapon and noted that the woman had a knife.

The woman told police there was a knife in her purse and directs officers to her purse. Fitzgerald described her behavior as complying with officers.

Daffron said Pierce is appealing the firing.

In the video, the woman, who is black, can be seen holding her license arguing with Bayona, who is asking for her ID. Pierce, who is white, can be seen grabbing her neck, then her hair and pulling her head down to try to get the woman in handcuffs. In the video he can be heard telling Bayona to “Tase her.”

Daffron said Fitzgerald’s release of only the body camera video was “cherry-picking” his transparency. She re-

© 2017 Pandora Jewelry, LLC • All rights reserved

leased a recording of the 911 call, the call notes officers were sent and a copy of a use of force report from the review of the incident.

Fitzgerald said charges against the woman were dropped after the video and other evidence was reviewed.

Police spokeswoman Paula Fimbres said department officials are still reviewing Bayona’s actions including the deployment of her Taser in the August altercation.

Supervisors conducting a mandatory review of officer use of force flagged the incident for review, Fitzgerald said.

Fimbres said the department had tried to contact the woman whose face is blurred in the video to get her state-

ment about the incident for their investigation, including leaving phone messages, mailing letters and leaving information at her address. She said the woman did not respond.

The release from Fitzgerald said he recognized the case was “eerily reminiscent” of an incident in December 2016, where a white Fort Worth officer responding to a report that a neighbor had choked a boy for littering, arrested the boy’s mother and sister, who were black. The confrontation between the officer, William Martin, and the mother, Jacqueline Craig, was broadcast on social media by one of her daughters and was viewed millions of times gaining national attention.

Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE FIESTA DE REGALOS 1 La preparatoria Zapata High School invita a la Fiesta de Regalos que se llevará a cabo el 21 de diciembre a las 4:30 p.m., en Zapata County Courthouse Plaza para niños de 10 años y menores.

POSADA EN ROMA 1 La ciudad de Roma invita a la Posada 2017 Toys for Kids, el 21 de diciembre desde las 4 p.m., en la Plaza Histórica de Roma. Todos los niños platicarán con Santa Claus y recibirán un regalo.

LAREDO

Acusan ex maestro de UISD Él supuestamente produjo pornografía infantil Por César G. Rodríguez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Un ex maestro del distrito escolar United Independent School District (UISD por sus siglas en inglés) fue recientemente arrestado por alegatos de producción de pornografía infantil por supuestamente tomar fotos de sí mismo teniendo relaciones sexuales con una menor de 16 años de edad, se establece en registros de la corte obtenidos el lunes.

Rubén Guillermo Ulloa, de 37 años de edad, supuestamente tuvo Ulloa una relación sexual con la niña por cerca de dos años del 2015 al 2017.

Ulloa era el maestro de la menor, se establece en la querella presentada el jueves.

El 7 de diciembre, la policía arrestó a Ulloa y lo acusó de agresión sex-

ual a un menor. Él ha estado bajo custodia hasta que las autoridades federales se hicieron cargo del caso. Ulloa hizo una aparición inicial el viernes ante el Juez Magistrado Guillermo García.

Los registros muestran que el 16 de septiembre, los padres de una niña de 16 años llamaron al Departamento de Policía de la universidad Texas A&M International University (TAMIU por sus siglas en inglés), para

reportar que su hija había participado en una relación sexual con Ulloa.

El 4 de octubre, la policía de TAMIU ejecutó una orden de cateo a la residencia de Ulloa y decomisó evidencia electrónica, de acuerdo a la querella.

Aproximadamente dos meses después, un agente especial de Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional, recuperó imágenes de la computadora laptop marca Toshiba de Ulloa, mostrándolo a él supues-

tamente agrediendo sexualmente a la niña.

A ella se le mostraron múltiples fotografías que fueron recuperadas de la laptop de Ulloa. Ella supuestamente se identificó a sí misma y a Ulloa como la pareja participando en actos sexuales.

Ulloa tiene una audiencia de causa probable y de detención programada para el 20 de diciembre. Él enfrenta hasta 30 años en prisión federal y una multa de hasta 250.000 dólares.

VACACIONES DE NAVIDAD 1 El distrito escolar Zapata County Independent School District informa que las oficinas administrativas y las escuelas pertenecientes al distrito tendrán sus vacaciones de Navidad del 25 de diciembre 2017 al 5 de enero de 2018.

MCALLEN

TAMAULIPAS

PIDEN DETENER TRÁFICO DE ARMAS

AVIARIO 1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a visitar el aviario Roma Bluffs World Birding Center en el distrito histórico de Roma. El aviario estará abierto de jueves a domingo de 8 a.m. a 4 p.m. hasta enero. Informes al 9568491411.

E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

EVENTOS EN LAREDO 1 Baile Hallow X Masquerade Ball, en Siete Banderas, 901 Iturbide, para celebrar post Halloween y pre Navidad, desde las 5 p.m, el viernes 22 de diciembre. Tocarán más de ocho bandas. Evento tiene costo.

1 Celebración de procrastinadores en The Outlet Shoppes el viernes 22 de diciembre de 8 a.m. a 11 p.m. habrá karaoke, spin the wheel y premios.

1 Disney Live! Mickey and Minnie’s Doorway to Magic, el viernes 22 de diciembre a las 4 p.m. en el Laredo Energy Arena.

1 Fiesta de Navidad en 2nd & Charles, 5410 San Bernardo, se llevará a cabo el sábado 23 de diciembre de 2 p.m. a 4 p.m. con la lectura de The Polar Express.

1 Holiday Glow Ride de BIKE Laredo de 7:30 p.m. a 10:30 p.m. el sábado 23 de diciembre en Cultura Beer Garden ubicado en 3301 de San Bernardo. El recorrido es por el vecindario histórico de St. Peter’s.

Operativo protege autos en carreteras

Foto de cortesía

El Gobernador de Tamaulipas Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca y el Congresista de Texas Henry Cuéllar participan en un panel de discusión organizado por la Cámara de Comercio de McAllen, el pasado viernes 15 de diciembre.

Cámara de comercio realiza mesa redonda TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

En esfuerzo por reunir a los líderes de la comunidad de negocios para discutir temas de interés con autoridades gubernamentales, la Cámara de Comercio de McAllen realizó el evento Chamber Talks con el Gobernador de Tamaulipas Francisco Cabeza de Vaca y el Congresista de los Estados Unidos Henry Cuéllar, el pasado viernes.

García Cabeza de Vaca, reiteró el llamado a las autoridades estadounidenses a establecer mecanismos conjuntos de combate al tráfico de armas, petición que fue secundada por Cuéllar.

Ambos, participaron en una mesa de diálogo que por primera vez tuvo a un Gobernador mexicano como invitado.

Durante el diálogo abierto a socios del organismo empresarial

y público en general, García Cabeza de Vaca y Cuéllar, Congresista del 28 Distrito electoral de Texas, hablaron sobre los retos y acciones que se realizan por contribuir a una región fronteriza más productiva y próspera.

García Cabeza de Vaca sostuvo que su administración ha emprendido acciones sin precedentes en el combate a la inseguridad, que se traducen en mejores condiciones para el desarrollo económico de la región en ambos lados de la frontera.

“Qué es lo que estamos tratando de hacer nosotros junto con las autoridades de los Estados Unidos, pues trabajar de la mano, no solamente capacitando mejor a nuestros policías, no solamente pagarles bien”, precisó García Cabeza de Vaca. “Sino trabajar de la mano como lo estamos haciendo ahora, yo creo que

esto jamás se había visto en la historia”.

Cuéllar respaldó la postura advirtiendo que es necesario establecer mecanismos de revisión en los cruces internacionales hacia el sur de la franja fronteriza y extender la vigilancia no solamente de lo que ingresa ilegalmente a los Estados Unidos, sino de lo que sale también.

Durante el diálogo bilingüe, también se hizo énfasis en trabajar de la mano en la construcción de más fuertes y eficientes lazos de colaboración en materia de comercio exterior, para impulsar el crecimiento económico de la región Tamaulipas-Texas.

El alcalde de McAllen Jim Darling entregó las llaves de la ciudad al mandatario, convirtiéndolo en el primer gobernador mexicano en recibir esta distinción.

CIUDAD VICTORIA, México — El gobernador Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca puso en marcha desde la capital del estado el Plan General de Operaciones “Todos Unidos por la Seguridad de Tamaulipas” con el fin de garantizar el bienestar y tranquilidad de familias y viajeros durante el periodo vacacional de invierno.

“Es interés del Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas garantizar la seguridad de todas las personas que transitan por el estado, de aquellos que vienen de visita, así como de los paisanos que cruzan por territorio estatal”, menifestó García Cabeza de Vaca.

El operativo contempla la instalación de módulos de atención en puntos estratégicos como carreteras, centrales de autobuses y espacios públicos con alta concentración de personas, integrados por elementos de las Fuerzas Federales, estatales, cuerpos de auxilio y dependencias de los 3 órdenes de gobierno.

En las labores de vigilancia en zonas urbanas y carreteras participan el Ejército Mexicano, Marina Armada de México, Policía Federal, Policía Estatal Acreditable y Policía Estatal de Auxilio Carretero; asimismo, la Cruz Roja, Ángeles Verdes, Protección Civil, Tránsito y Vialidad, apoyarán estas tareas.

La atención al turista, viajeros y familias será ofrecida por parte del Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, a través de las Secretarías de Bienestar Social, Educación, Salud, Desarrollo Urbano y Medio Ambiente, Turismo y Seguridad Pública.

“La participación de instituciones de los 3 órdenes de gobierno juega un papel importante para enviar un mensaje de confianza a nuestros visitantes”, subrayó el titular del Ejecutivo Estatal.

GUERRERO AYER Y HOY

INAH participa en restauración de capilla y templo en Guerrero Viejo Por Lilia Treviño Martínez TIEM P O DE ZAPATA

Nota del editor: Éste forma parte de una serie de artículos sobre la historia de Ciudad Guerrero, México, fueron escritos por la guerrerense Lilia Treviño Martínez (1927-2016), quien fuera profesora de la escuela Leoncio Leal.

En el mes de febrero de 2004 un grupo de arquitectos del INAH Tamaulipas vinieron a este Municipio a efectuar unos

levantamientos en Guerrero Viejo para el proyecto de restauración, que comprendería el acondicionamiento de la casa de un custodio y la restauración del muro frontal de la antigua capilla junto al templo ya restaurado.

En reunión celebrada el 10 de septiembre del mismo año se comentó la necesidad de impermeabilizar el techo del templo que se restauró en 19998-1999.

Tomando el acuerdo de que se realizara esta obra en cuanto se

contara con los recursos necesarios.

En el mes de octubre del mismo año nos visitó el nuevo Director del Centro INAH en Tamaulipas, Luis Carlos Torre Gómez, quien después de una reunión en un salón del Palacio Municipal se trasladó al Viejo Guerrero para dar el simbólico panderazo a las obras del proyecto mencionado.

Dos meses después se efectuó una nueva reunión y el arquitec-

to Heriberto Morales informó la terminación del mencionado proyecto de restauración ante autoridades del gobierno de Tamaulipas.

En el mes de febrero de 2005 el Centro INAH Tamaulipas convocó a una reunión en Ciudad Victoria a la cual asistieron Rafael de la Garza en representación de “Hijos y Amigos de Ciudad Guerrero” y el arquitecto Carlos Rugerio, amigos y colaborador de esta Asociación Civil,

y la Dirección de INAH dispuso que a partir de esa fecha la A.C. mencionada sería solamente colaboradora de las obras de restauración. Por lo tanto, el nuevo Presidente Municipal de Guerrero, Luis Gerardo Ramos, tomó a su cargo la responsabilidad de sostenimiento del custodio y otras actividades de mantenimiento, como el encalichamiento del camino de acceso a la Antigua Ciudad, que hasta la fecha ha cumplido cabalmente.

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 |

A7

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

Extreme boost? Cowboys excited to have Elliott back

By Drew Davison FO RT WORT H STAR-T E LE GRAM

OAKLAND, Calif. — Ezekiel Elliott returned to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday.

Elliott reported to The Star around noon after sitting out the past six games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, stemming from a July 2016 incident in which an exgirlfriend accused him of domestic violence.

Elliott was expected to meet with owner Jerry Jones in the morning after spending much of his suspension training in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

"We’re excited about Zeke," Jones said. "I’m excited to have him back at The Star. It’s been a rough year for Zeke, and he’ll be the first to say that he knows his fans have had an up-and-down (time) with him here, and now we’re back together again. Maybe we’ll get a chance to really do something special, maybe we’ll get in the playoffs."

The Cowboys kept their playoff hopes alive with a wild 20-17 victory over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday night. They rushed for more than 120 yards for the third consecutive game with Alfred Morris and Rod Smith carrying the load.

But Morris and Smith simply don’t provide the same homerun threat that Elliott does.

Elliott is still tied for the fifthmost rushing touchdowns (seven) in the league despite missing more than a third of the season.

"We get an extreme boost because that’s our guy. That’s

Patrick Semansky / Associated Press file

Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott had 783 rushing yards and seven touchdowns before serving a six-game suspension.

our horse," wide receiver Dez Bryant said. "He gives us that extra boost of joy because of his personality and who he is. He gets guys going with his attitude and his passion and love for the game. Just seeing him back will make us play that much better."

Before his suspension, Elliott ranked among the league rushing leaders. He had 783 rushing yards and 210 receiving yards before his suspension. He found his stride just before his suspension, too, averaging 126.5 yards a game and scoring six touchdowns (five rushing, one receiving) in the four games before his suspension.

The Cowboys struggled to adjust with life without him at the start of the suspension.

They went 0-3 and scored single-digit points in that dreadful stretch, the worst scoring production in franchise history.

They have righted the ship of late, though. Morris had one of the best days of his career in a 38-14 victory over the Washington Redskins, and Smith shined in a 30-10 victory over the New York Giants. On Sunday, Smith and quarterback Dak Prescott accounted for the Cowboys’ two touchdowns on the ground.

But the team is ready to get him back.

"He’s a great football player," coach Jason Garrett said. "Obviously had a big impact on our football team in the times he’s been with us. But a real credit to Alfred Morris and to Rod Smith

for playing as well as they have in his absence. Any time you have a player of Zeke’s caliber back in the lineup, he’s going to help. He’s going to take some pressure off everybody else. He’s just that kind of player and he’s been that kind of player for us.

"There’ll still be a role for Alfred. There’ll still be a role for Rod. But we’ll certainly embrace Zeke being back."

Morris rushed for 430 yards on 99 carries and a touchdown with Elliott sidelined, while Smith had 153 yards on 33 carries. Smith has scored a rushing touchdown in four consecutive games.

Elliott tried to avoid the suspension as long as possible. He had a prolonged legal battle with the NFL over the merits of the suspension.

Elliott has maintained his innocence all along and was never arrested or charged with a crime by the Columbus, Ohio city prosecutor’s office. But the NFL conducted its own 13month investigation and Commissioner Roger Goodell made the final determination that there was substantial evidence to suspend Elliott.

Jones was among the most outspoken in disagreeing with the league’s process and ruling, and defended Elliott again Sunday night.

"Zeke has never, as far as anything with domestic violence is concerned, he has never done anything that in our society we would punish him for. Ever," Jones said. "But he wants to play in the National Football

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: TEXAS RANGERS

RANGERS’ PEREZ TO MISS FIRST MONTH AFTER FALL AT RANCH

League and so the National Football League decides that if in fact, maybe to a higher bar, that he needs punished then they didn’t let him play six football games."

But Jones and the rest of the Cowboys are excited Elliott is back and this whole saga is behind them.

"We’re glad to have him back," Jones said. "Now we lost games when we had Zeke, so that doesn’t just mean that we don’t have to get out here and compete these last two ballgames. On the other hand, he’ll give us a dimension that the defenses will have to respect and honor."

The Cowboys understand the sort of lift Elliott can give them to extend their playoff push.

They stayed afloat by going 3-3 without him, and are still facing an uphill battle to make the playoffs.

They have a 17.2 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to MakeNFLPlayoffs.com. It starts with them winning out, beginning with the Christmas Eve game against Seattle next Sunday, and getting some help.

But at least they’re in the conversation with last year’s rushing champion returning.

"We’re in the hunt, but it’s not just, ’Here he comes back,’" tight end Jason Witten said. "We can never rely on that. Great player and I know he’s worked hard to get himself back and handled this entire process like a pro, but the most important thing is just to be in the hunt still.”

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: SAN ANTONIO SPURS

Bull causes broken elbow Edward A. Ornelas / San Antonio Express-News file

By Jeff Wilson

The Spurs will face Portland on Wednesday without Tony Parker, left, and Kawhi Leonard, right, due to their injury management programs which keep them from playing back-to-back games.

FO RT WORT H STAR-TELEGRAM

DALLAS — Go ahead and insert your own bullrelated joke here. Unfortunately for Martin Perez and the Texas Rangers, this isn’t a bunch of BS. The left-hander is expected to miss the first month of the 2018 season after he broke his nonthrowing elbow during a fall after being startled by a bull at his ranch in Venezuela.

General manager Jon Daniels relayed the story Tuesday after the ribboncutting ceremony for the Texas Rangers MLB Youth Academy. Perez was injured Dec. 11, flew to Arlington a few days later and underwent surgery Monday.

Perez can begin a throwing program in mid-January, and he is telling the Rangers that he will be ready by Opening Day. Daniels, though, said that there is concern about Perez’s upper body regaining strength it will lose during the recovery.

"What Martin told me was a bull moved in a way that he wasn’t expecting," Daniels said. "I don’t know if it was aggressive at him or if he just per-

Spurs to face Blazers without Leonard, Parker

By Tom Orsborn SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS Ben Margot / Associated Press file

Rangers pitcher Martin Perez broke his non-pitching elbow in a mishap with a bull and is likely to miss the start of the season.

ceived it that way, and he lunged out of the way and landed on his right arm."

Daniels said that he is not seeking a pitcher to replace Perez in the rotation because he should miss only a few starts. The Rangers open the season with 14 straight games, so they will be unable to skip a turn in the rotation.

If Perez is on the disabled list to open the season, right-hander Austin Bibens-Dirkx is a candidate to fill in for him. The Rangers signed him to a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training the season after he was voted as their rookie of the year.

The Rangers gave the

same deal to Erik Goeddel, who has pitched in relief the past four seasons for the New York Mets.

Daniels said that the Rangers continue to look for starting pitching, albeit more in an effort to add depth than to add to the five starters already in place. To that end, Daniels said that the Rangers have not scheduled a meeting with free agent Yu Darvish and aren’t planning to talk to their former right-hander whose price tag supposedly would put the Rangers well over budget.

"We’ve been very consistent I feel like in what we’ve said about that topic," Daniels said.

"Nothing’s changed. I think we’ve been very clear from Day One on our likely intentions."

Perez broke the radial head in his right elbow, and Dr. Thomas Diliberti of Dallas replaced the bone with an artificial one.

Doing that speeds up the recovery time, as there is no longer a bone that needs to heal, and Perez already has a full range of motion.

The Rangers exercised a $6 million club option on him after the season after he went 13-12 with a 4.88 ERA in 32 starts. Perez finished the season by allowing three or fewer runs in nine of his final 12 starts.

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Spurs will be without Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker when they face the Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, according to the team's injury report released Tuesday afternoon.

Leonard and Parker will sit out the game as part of their injury management program, which prohibits them from playing back-to-back games.

The Spurs are at Utah on Thursday night, and they likely opted to play Leonard and Parker in that game because it will be televised nationally on TNT. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has made it clear he will pursue fines for teams that rest or

bench healthy players during nationally televised games.

Leonard and Parker also have restrictions on their minutes because of serious quadriceps issues that forced them to miss the first 27 and 19 games of the season, respectively.

On a positive note for the Spurs, forward Kyle Anderson (left MCL strain) and guard Danny Green (tightness, left groin) have been upgraded to probable for the Portland game.

Anderson has missed the last eight games after suffering his injury during the Spurs' loss at Oklahoma City on Dec. 3.

Green's injured groin has forced him to miss three games, including the last two in a row. He suffered the injury in a victory over Boston on Dec. 8.

A8 | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

FROM THE COVER DACA From page A1

Manuel Jesus Ortega Canche / AFP/Getty Images

Mexican officers stand guard in the area where a bus driving tourists to Chacchoben archaeological zone overturned in the road between El Cafetal and Mahahual, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico on Tuesday.

CRASH From page A1 said U.S. officials were working with local authorities to determine whether American citizens were involved.

Martin said investigators were working to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred as the bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles (175 kilometers) south of Tulum.

Chris Brawley, a passenger on the Serenade of Seas, was on a bus headed to the same Mayan ruins when they came on the scene minutes after the accident.

It was shortly after 9 a.m. and a convoy of buses from the cruise port at Mahahual was headed to Chacchoben, he said.

They had been on the road for about 35 to 40 minutes before the accident.

Brawly said the sky was clear and the road was dry and he didn’t see any sign of any other vehicle being involved in the crash, which happened on a narrow, twolane road with no shoulder or guardrail.

He said he did not see the crash, but “the bus

Manuel Jesus Ortega Canche / AFP/Getty Images

The body of one of the victims of a road accident lays on the highway, where a bus driving tourists to see the Mayan ruins overturned between El Cafetal and Mahahual, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico on Tuesday.

clearly lost control somehow as there were swerve marks all over the road surface.”

Brawley, of Haslet, Texas, said his ship departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday for a seven-day cruise. They were in Roatan, Honduras, on Monday and were scheduled to be in Cozumel on Wednesday.

Michael Schuenemeyer, a minister from Cleveland, was on another bus that passed the crash about an hour later.

Tow trucks were lifting up the bus when they passed by, he said. “It was in pretty sad shape,”

Schuenemeyer said.

Costa Maya Mahahual, the bus company involved, said in a statement that in addition to the tourists, a guide and driver were aboard the bus.

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service. After Osman Aroche Enriquez, 26, was pulled over by police for what advocates said was an expired vehicle registration, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained for three days.

The agency released him based on what ICE called an “exercise of discretion.”

“His case calls into question how many ‘Dreamers’ in similar situations are languishing in detention, and how many are living in fear of deportation due to expired status or post office delays,” Church World Service said in a statement.

The government does not turn over information about DACA recipients to deportation agents unless they are targeted for a criminal investigation.

That means immigrants with expiring paperwork won’t be automatically deported, but they can if they get stopped by police or arrested on criminal charges.

Officials say there are no plans to change how it handles personal information of applicants.

However, Francis Cissna, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said “the guidance has always said that that policy could change. It has always said

that; it still says that.”

WHERE DOES CONGRESS STAND? On Capitol Hill, the most promising avenue for legislation seems to be with a bipartisan group in the Senate, led by Sens.

Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. They claim good progress on negotiations to give the so-called “Dreamers” protections through legislation that would be added to a sweeping spending package next month.

But the White House is adamant that other issues, including Trump’s longpromised U.S.-Mexico border wall and increased funding for immigration enforcement inside the country, be addressed in the package. The Trump administration is also planning to move to a merit-based immigration structure.

The path forward is assuredly tricky, but there is widespread bipartisan support for the young immigrants among lawmakers.

WHAT COULD A SOLUTION LOOK LIKE? Legislation would put the immigrants on a path to U.S. citizenship by granting permanent legal status to more than 1 million people who arrived before they turned 18 and pass background checks, among other criteria.

The bill proposes legalizing the status of those who were admitted to the DACA program.

The head of the agency that runs the program rescinded by Trump says any legislative fix will require money and time to implement, depending on how many people end up benefiting from the solution.

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THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 |

A9

BUSINESS

US housing starts rose 3.3 Stocks pull back from their percent in November

By Josh Boak A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — Construction of new homes increased 3.3 percent in November — with the gain largely coming from single-family houses being built at the strongest pace in more than a decade.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on homes last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million units. The increase marks a key moment in the recovery from the Great Recession: Builders started work on single-family houses at the fastest pace since September 2007, which was just a few months before the start of that economic downturn.

Driving the rebound in home construction has been a shortage of existing properties being listed for sale.

Fewer people are putting their property on the market, despite healthy demand from buyers because the unemploy-

Isaac Hale / AP

Dustin Brinkerhoff, owner of Brinkerhoff Custom Construction, walks with boards to put in place as a temporary safety guard rail at a worksite of a future home in Mapleton, Utah. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that construction of new homes increased 3.3 percent in November.

ment rate is at a 17 yearlow and mortgage rates remain at attractive levels. New construction has filled some of this gap with starts on singlefamily houses rising 8.7 percent so far this year.

Still, not enough new homes are being built to totally end the supply squeeze. Over the past year, the number of sales listings for the much larger market for existing homes has fallen 6.4

percent.

The construction growth last month came from the South and West, while the Northeast and Midwest reported declines.

Builders are also backing away from the apartment rentals that until recently were a driving force behind the rebound in residential construction. Ground breakings for multi-family buildings such as apartment complexes have declined 8.5 percent year-to-date.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, slipped 1.4 percent in October to 1.3 million. But the number of permits authorized so far this year has increased 5.8 percent.

Relatively low mortgage rates have helped would-be homebuyers, even as property prices have climbed faster than wages. The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate U.S. mortgages was 3.93 percent last week, slightly better than the 4.16 percent rate a year ago, according to mortgage Freddie Mac.

Facebook introduces new facial recognition features

By Jeremy Kahn B L OOMBE RG NEWS

Facebook is introducing new facial recognition features that will automatically notify users when their photo is posted on the social network, the company said in a blog post Tuesday.

The new features are being rolled out in the face of growing pressure on the company from regulators in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere who have criticized Facebook for spreading fake news, fostering hate speech, eroding civil discourse and trampling privacy rights. The facial recognition technology could help combat some abusive conduct on the network, the company said, although it may also raise additional privacy concerns.

The feature builds on technology Facebook already uses to suggest tags or labels for people in photos users post, Rob Sherman, the company’s deputy chief privacy

officer, said in an interview.

He said the new feature give users more control by informing them when their photo has been posted. They can review the post and then tag themselves, choose to leave themselves untagged or, if they are not comfortable with it, contact with the user who posted the photo to ask them to remove it, or file a complaint with Facebook, he said.

A user must be part of the permitted audience for the page posting the photo in order to receive the notification.

An additional feature will also inform users if anyone across the entire social network tries to post a profile picture containing them, Joaquin Candela, Facebook’s director of applied machine learning, said in the blog. “We’re doing this to prevent people from impersonating others on Facebook,” he said.

Fake accounts have

been implicated in the spread of false information on Facebook as well as in some scams perpetrated on the network.

Both features will be turned on-or-off via a single toggle in Facebook’s settings, Candela said.

The new features debuting today will be available everywhere except Europe and Canada, where privacy regulators have previously raised objections to Facebook’s auto photo tagging feature, Sherman said.

Nipun Mather, a product manager in the company’s applied machine learning group, said in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s announcement that the facial recognition features build on advances the company’s artificial intelligence researchers have made in computer vision.

While now able to identify most users in head-on photos, the technology won’t recognize people whose faces are obscured, in shadow or at

unusual angles. He also said it would struggle to differentiate identical twins.

“If people have a hard time recognizing someone, then in those situations, computer vision will struggle too,” he said. He said if Facebook’s system did not have high confidence in its identification of someone in a photo, it would leave them untagged.

The company also said it was adding facial recognition to its “automatic alt-text tool,” which allows visually impaired people to hear an audio description of what is in an image on Facebook.

Introduced two years ago, the technology recognizes broad object categories like “trees” or “river” and will now be able to read out the names of people in the photos too, provided they Facebook users.

But the system is still not sophisticated enough to provide a full description of the action in a scene, Mather said.

recent highs

By Marley Jay ASSOCIATED PRE SS

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks declined Tuesday as big technology companies and smaller firms gave up some of their recent gains. Stocks hit record highs over the previous two days as the Republican-backed tax bill made its way through Congress.

Smaller companies in particular have surged because investors feel they will be major beneficiaries of lower corporate tax rates. High-dividend stocks dropped as bond yields rose.

Investors like the proposed tax cut because it would boost corporate profits and likely raise stock prices along with it.

The bill would initially cut taxes for most Americans but by 2027 would increase tax bills for most.

While stocks weren’t doing much Tuesday, bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to its highest price in more than a month, to 2.45 percent from 2.39 percent late Monday.

Invesco Global Market Strategist Kristina Hooper said two factors are sending bond yields higher: investors are selling bonds to buy stocks as the tax bill appears likely to pass, and they also feel the bill may contribute to inflation.

“There’s this expectation that we’ll see companies save money on taxes, to put it simply, and spend more in other areas,” she said. Investors think “it’s going to have an impact on employment, wages, and therefore inflation,” she said.

The tax bill passed through the House, largely along party lines ahead of a Senate vote scheduled for Tuesday night. The $1.5 trillion package would cut the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, and would slash taxes for the wealthy, with smaller cuts for middleand low-income families.

After the close of trading, House Republican leaders said they will have to hold another vote on the bill Wednesday because a few provisions violate Senate rules.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 8.69 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,681.47.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 37.45 points, or 0.2 percent, to

After the close of trading, House Republican leaders said they will have to hold another vote on the bill Wednesday because a few provisions violate Senate rules.

24,754.75. The Nasdaq composite gave up 30.91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,963.85. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 12.17 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,536.75. It climbed almost 3 percent over the previous two days.

Apple fell $1.88, or 1.1 percent, to $174.54 after it closed at a new high on Monday. Visa lost $1.41, or 1.2 percent, to $112.14.

Investors also traded on corporate news. Offshore drilling platform maker McDermott International said it will acquire engineering, procurement and construction services company Chicago Bridge & Iron.

The companies valued the deal at $6 billion. McDermott fell 90 cents, or 11.9 percent, to $6.69 and CB&I lost $1.91, or 10.7 percent, to $16.01.

Medical device maker Zimmer Biomet climbed after it named Bryan Hanson to be its new CEO. Hanson most recently led at Medtronic’s minimally invasive therapies business. Former CEO David Dvorak left the company in July. Zimmer gained $6.95, or 6.1 percent, to $121.38.

Hospital operator Tenet Healthcare said it will cut another $100 million in costs and will look to sell its Conifer business, which provides revenue management services.

The company also said it will continue shaking up its board. Its stock gained 29 cents, or 2 percent, to $15.03.

Nursing and rehabilitation center company Kindred Healthcare said it will be bought by health insurer Humana and two private equity firms for $9 a share. That values Kindred at $782 million, and the company said the deal is worth $4.1 billion including debt.

Rumors of a sale have boosted the stock 23 percent this month, including a gain of 10.5 percent Monday. On Tuesday it retreated 40 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $9.10.

A10 | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

ENTERTAINMENT

Gustavo Caballero / Getty Images

Singer Thalia is seen on the set of 'Despierta America' at Univision Studios in Miami, Florida. Thirty years after she starred in the telenovela “Quinceanera,” Thalia makes her directorial debut with an HBO documentary about the importance in Latin culture of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday.

Thalia makes directorial debut with HBO documentary

By Sigal Ratner-Arias A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — Thirty years after she starred in the telenovela “Quinceanera,” Thalia makes her directorial debut with an HBO documentary about the importance in Latin culture of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday.

“15: A Quinceanera Story,” premiering Tuesday, includes four episodes to be aired during consecutive nights. They go from a transgender teen who shares her celebration with her trans godmothers who didn’t have a chance to have their own quinceanera to an amateur female boxer whose father was deported and whose devoted coach faces the same fate.

“This documentary comes from my need to tell the story of the Hispanic community, of the families that regardless of their social class, regardless of borders, make anything needed to celebrate a party where a girl will stop being a girl and will become the woman that’s going to face her life from then on,” Thalia said in a recent interview.

“It’s such a beautiful

story to see how families make every possible effort to give her a party ... to dress her with those dreamy dresses. And the union and the love, that to me was the important thing to share in these moments where everything around us, what we read in the newspaper, what we hear in the news, is negative, is upsetting, is about death, is about pain,” the Mexican singer and actress said. “I want to bring some love, some light, some hope, some family, some romanticism, some dreams with this documentary.”

Co-directed by Matthew O’Neill and executive produced by music mogul Tommy Mottola, who is Thalia’s husband, “15: A Quinceanera Story” starts with an episode about Zoey, a Mexican-American transgender girl who Thalia says has been the most emotional for her.

“I think that seeing her beaming, happy, celebrating her 15 years of age with her trans-godmothers, who were also there and were seeing her as a milestone in these times, in this society we live in, I think is a truly striking, beautiful image to see.”

She gave Zoey a special gift: a dress designed for her by Mitzy, the same designer who created Thalia’s wedding dress in 2000.

Thalia, who starred in Televisa’s 1987 “Quinceanera” — considered one of the most influential telenovelas of the time for tackling issues like substance abuse, date rape and gangs — didn’t have a traditional quincenera party. She said she wanted “a totally different dress” in a totally different setting.

“I wanted a tube dress, close-fitting down to the ankles, with a band on my forehead and a giant bun, very ‘80s, and long gloves.

And instead of a party hall I celebrated it in a nightclub,” she said. “But when I did the telenovela the following year, that’s when it hit me and I fell in love with all the tradition of the big dress, the dance partners, of that waltz that I didn’t want to have but that I ended up having in the telenovela and it was magical.

“To me this is such an important, wonderful ... tradition. ... It is a family tradition that’s very much us, that’s very Latin, and it is beautiful.”

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 20, 2017 |

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